Zalyn

Born to Feodosia and an unnamed Rusalka man via a tryst by a river, Zalyn was raised within the Convent of the Dormition in Ladeisk. At 13, she ran away from home and remained away from society for two years, seeking a father and a family that she'd never known. While the truth of her parentage never became known, she met other rusalki in the rivers and streams within the forest. These taught her her paternal language, how to use her blood to call upon the powers of persuasion, and connected her to her nechist' side.
One evening, a rusalka woman kissed Zalyn on her lips, and Zalyn tore away, glaring directly into the creature's eyes. The rusalka, and all her compatriots, reeled back with sheer terror, as though they'd seen a ghost, and fled, leaving Zalyn alone in the night. Frustrated, she returned back to a mother who, while glad to see her, was terribly angry and resentful, frustrated by this wild creature she had brought to the world. At sixteen, Feodosia secured her a suitable marriage to a minor prince, Matvei Olegovich Shuvalov, but this quickly broke down as Matvei Olegovich would take the day's frustrations out on his barren young wife. Within three years of their matrimony, Matvei Olegovich died under strange circumstances - he was found in his bed, ghostly pale and his unseeing eyes wide with fright. This left Zalyn a small fortune and a shaky place within the aristocracy.
Using machinations of her own, Zalyn used the gifts of her blood to intrigue and seduce many of the men, and several of the women, within the town's elite. Always keeping a suitor around, and cleverly gleaning information where she could, Zalyn had, within this last year, found company with Zhadan Cheslavovich, a major domo at the citadel with connections at other courts. At 25, she was both shrewd and calculating, but soft and naive. She bore her scars from childhood beatings, Matvei Olegovich's beatings, and the clawings at the hands of the rusalka determinedly, using them to intimidate her rivals, while garnering favor with those who felt sorry for her. To cope with hardship and to calm her wild nerves, she drank heavily.
At one point, Zhadan has asked that Zalyn help to ensure a group of newcomers in town known as the Serpent Slayers would seek out an envoy from another court - Zinovii Surikov. In exchange, he promised a letter of introduction to this envoy. The Serpent Slayers had just left town, and Zalyn followed them through the woods, and promptly got lost. While making her bed by a pond before continuing the search the next day, she was surrounded by a multitude of loathsome swamp nechist'. Addressing them in their own tongue, she convinced them to let her spend the night in exchange for tracking down and bringing back a group of travelers. Fortunately, they matched the description of the people she was following.
Early the next morning, those same people happened to wander by the very place she was sleeping. Led by Yuri - a man who raised horses in a recently destroyed village within the patrimony of Ladeisk Prince Trofim Andreevich, they were the Serpent Slayers, who had traveled in Kochmak lands in the south, and were now going to look for Archbishop Nikifor, seeking help for another of their companions, a girl named Agapia. They were just now returning from the nearby village of Sitnitsa, where they had been a few days hence. Another of them, Lokan, had thoughtlessly stolen a golden egg from some peasants there, and then it happened that a rat that followed them from the village cracked the egg, and Agapia thoughtless swallowed its contents. Ever since, they had attracted all sorts of foul creatures to them, including Navii in Ladeisk, and as a result, they had lost the prince's favor, and were now traveling to seek the Archbishop's aid. Zalyn offered to join them, adding that her patron, Zhadan, wanted them to meet and speak with Zinovii Surikov after they deal with the business at hand. This man was known to them, but Yuri wondered why her patron wanted them to do this. He allowed her to follow along, so long as she pledged not to spy on them.
Thereafter, Zalyn and Yuri went to Sitnitsa, and found it abandoned. They soon found a pile of butchered bodies in one of the households, as well as a talking rat, who told them that he had returned to the village looking for his old mistress Cherniava after Agapia and Lokan had been taken by a wolf shapechanger. Having no mistress now, the rat - Terentii, adopted Zalyn as his new mistress.
As they left the village to warn their companions, an army of navii followed them. These were turned back by Augusta - a foreign priestess traveling with the Serpent Slayers. The navii persisted, and harried the travelers as they took shelter under the priestess' summoned dome, so she tried to rebuke them again, though this had the perverse effect of making Zalyn, and several other companions, flee in terror as well. As she gathered her wits and calmed herself, she blasted the monsters with thunder, though this only provoked them. Eventually Yuri rode down the stragglers, and the rest staggered away. However, a larger number soon return, forcing the companions to flee in various directions to avoid being trapped. As she made her way toward the pond in which she slept the previous night, Zalyn met Agapia, about whom she had already heard much. The young girl was escaping a pack of wolf shapechangers who had kidnapped her. With navii pursuing from the other side, she then fled to the village to secrete herself in the church, but not before Terentii abandoned Zalyn, and returned back to Agapia. Zalyn took cover in the pond for the night, only to be found by Zorina, whom she met with the Serpent Slayers the previous day. Zorina had also been taken by the wolves, but escaped, and was now seeking the rest of the group. However, the nearby village was now on fire, and the two women fled south to avoid being consumed by the flames. They combed the woods, seeking the rest of the group, and taking shelter at night to avoid being eaten by the still-marauding navii - Zorina in the ground, in fox form, and Zalyn up in a tree. Subsequently, Zorina did discover a fresh horse track, and followed it. As they traveled, Zalyn kept trying to reach out to Augusta with her mind.
After several days, she finally found her, and the rest of the Serpent Slayers, in the middle of a confrontation with the wolf pack near a huge oak tree. One - a witch - confronts Zorina and Zalyn. They subdue her, but as she is Lokan's foster mother, she is allowed to leave, along with other survivors. As the battle raged, Agapia had leapt through a portal in the tree, so the rest of the group was forced to follow her - into the real of Grey Wolf - the ruler of all wolfkind. Zalyn convinces another member of the pack - Tserg - to follow her down as well, and to act as her guide and protector. They sought out the other Serpent Slayers, and then, met a large wolf named Kolovul, who escorted them into a woodsy fortress through a giant maw. Inside was the Grey Wolf's domain, and his disembodied voice informed them that he now had Agapia, and using the egg she had swallowed, he would draw all wolves and nechist' to his side to take back the land that once belonged to his people. The children of Dazhbog - humans - had betrayed them, and stole this land. Now, everyone faced a choice - to join with him, to flee, or to be devoured like sheep. Along with most of the rest, Zalyn took the opportunity Grey Wolf offered - to leave while they still can, and was released from his Realm back into the visible world. Yuri chooses to stay behind and fight for Agapia's release, so he is not among the people who return to the oak tree.
With Lokan deciding to rejoin his old pack, the Serpent Slayers now divided and scattered, Zalyn seemed to be without a mission, and, out of place in the woods, thought of returning back to Ladeisk. Yet Yuri was soon released, badly battered, and a traveling group led by the Archbishop - the very man they had been seeking, appears from the south. Surprisingly, in his train is Zinovii Surikov - just the person Zalyn wanted the Serpent Slayers to speak to. Zalyn had a conversation with him in private, and then, the two decided to continue their dialog as the join Yuri for a trip back to Malinka - the Archbishop's estate (and thence, perhaps to Vladykino. While Augusta and Zorina followed the archbishop's train back south, Zalyn, along with Yuri and Zinovii headed to Malinka, and arrived after a full day's travel. But the following day, an army of wolves arrived to lay siege to the estate, which had but a few defenders. Perhaps fortuitously, Zalyn had gone on a walk with Zinovii at that time. She never returned, and none of the Serpent Slayers have seen her since. Her current whereabouts are unknown, as Malinka was then occupied by the forces of Grey Wolf.

* * *

Zalyn is a young, attractive woman in her mid-20s. She has black hair, but her skin gives off a distinctly blue-green sheen, revealing her rusalka origins. She is a well-spoken person with the polished and confident manner of one who has lived among the elite near a princely court. She is skilled at the art of seduction, and has had many conquests, among both men and women.

Species

Rusalka

Age

25

Gender

Female

Eyes

Blue, with pale blue irises

Hair

Black

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Pale bluish-green

Height

5'7"

Weight

135 lbs.